Greek and English Prepositions, by comparison.

Now, despite the last post, I did not purpose a review of a text. Rather, my thoughts have been turned to the prepositions about which I have been reviewing today. Consider English, in which dozens of prepositions make their home. If you were to ask my Roman Catholic friends, Maryalice Ralston, and William Phillips, they could rattle off just about every English preposition in the English language, ALPHABETICALLY!!! They were forced to as good RC’s in an RC school. Thank the Lord for these nuns who demand obedience.

A list similar to the following (taken from wikipedia.org)

a (see “an” for usage in front of vowels.)

abaft

aboard

about

above

absent

across

afore

after

against

along

alongside

amid

amidst

among

amongst

an (see “a” for usage in front of consonants.)

apropos (“apropos of” is a common derived term.)

around

as

aside

astride

at

athwart

atop

barring

before

behind

below

beneath

beside

besides

between

betwixt

beyond

but

by

circa

concerning

despite

down

during

except

excluding

failing

following

for

from

given

in

including

inside

into

like

mid (from “amid”. Usually used poetically.)

midst (from “amidst”. Usually used poetically.)

minus

near

next

notwithstanding (also used post positionally)

of

off

on

onto

opposite

out

outside

over

pace

passim

past

per

plus

pro

qua

regarding

round

sans

save

since

than

through, thru (informal)

throughout, thruout (informal)

till

times

to

toward

towards

under

underneath

unlike

until

up

upon

versus, commonly abbreviated as “vs.”

via

vice, meaning “in place of”[1]

with

within

without

worth

Two words

according to

ahead of

as of

as per

as regards

aside from

because of

close to

due to

except for

far from

in to (contracted as into)

inside of (note that inside out is an adverb, not a preposition)

instead of

left of

near to

next to

on to (contracted as onto)

out from

out of

outside of

owing to

prior to

pursuant to

regardless of

right of

subsequent to

thanks to

that of

where as

[edit]

Three words

as far as

as well as

by means of

in accordance with

in addition to

in case of

in front of

in lieu of

in place of

in point of

in spite of

on account of

on behalf of

on top of

with regard to

with respect to

Archaic or infrequently used

anent

anti (loan word)

behither

betwixt

chez

cum (Latin loan word)

ere

fornenst

fornent

outwith

pro (loan word)

qua (loan word)

re (loan word)

sans (loan word)

‘twixt (from betwixt)

unto (largely supplanted by to; used in some formal, religious, or archaic contexts)

vis-à-vis (loan word)

Greek, on the other hand, at least, New Testament (Koine) Greek, has about 25 prepositions, given in the following list, which occur ten times or more in the Greek New Testament. I would love if you had anymore, if you could put them down as a comment beneath.

Easy by comparison to roughly 150 for English. Unfortunately, I have had to transliterate them, since blogger evidentally is not equipped to read Greek fonts. -ow means long -o sound as in low.

And when it says that certain prepositions occur with one case/two cases/three cases. That means Greek has cases like English. Put simply:

Genitive prepositions are connected to Genitive Case nouns, which is similar to the English possessive,

Dative prepositions are connected to Dative Case nouns, which are function like English indirect objects.

Accusative prepositions are connected to Accusative Case nouns, which function like direct objects in English.

The case is determined in Greek, by the context of the noun to which the preposition is connected. For example, if “meta” is connected to a Genitive noun, it will be translated as “with.”

The preositions with one case, however, will usually only appear in the presence of the particular case with which they are associated. For example, in order for “ana” to be present, there must be an Accusative noun present in the verse in question. No Accusative noun, no Accusative preposition. The good thing about this is, if you see one of these one-case prepositions, that means you will run across a noun in that case, and it usually is the next word.

One other thing, just because you do not have an Accusative/Genitive/Dative preposition, does not mean there will be no Accusative/Genitive/Dative preposition. Accusative nouns to not need prepositions to exist. Only prepositional phrases do.

Prepositional phrases are those phrases that contain both a preposition (a word that describes position) and it’s object. “Under the bridge” is a prepositional phrase, with “under” functioning as the preposition and “bridge” functioning as it’s object.

Anyway, enough babbling, and onto the list.

Prepositions with one case

ana

accusative: up, upwards

anti

instead of

apo

genitive: from, away from

achree, achrees

genitive: as far as, until

eis

accusative: to, into

ek, eks

genitive: from, out of

emprowsthen

genitive: before (place)

enowpion

genitive: before (place)

en

dative: in, with

eksow

genitive: outside, out of

eows

genitive: until, as far as

opeesow

genitive: behind

pro

genitive: before

pros

accusative: to, towards, with

soon

dative: with

chowrees

genitive: apart from

Prepositions

with two cases

deea

genitive: through

accusative: on account of

kata

genitive: down from, against

accusative: according to, throughout, during

meta

genitive: with

accusative: after

peree

genitive: concerning, about

accusative: around

huper

genitive: on behalf of, for

accusative: above

hupo

genitive: by

accusative: under

Prepositions

with three cases

para

accusative: alongside, beside

genitive: from beside

dative: (resting) beside

epee

genitive, accusative, dative: on, upon

If you have any thoughts on the following, please, I enjoy this subject, grammar and language, intensely. Drop a line and we will chat. Or just ask the students at Dayspring Christian School how much I enjoy this material.